Yikes! iMessages Don’t REALLY Go Away Even After You Delete Them

You may think texting is safe, but you could be wrong. According to a recent security find, there is a flaw in WhatsApp. If you use the app, there is absolutely no way of deleting your messages forever — short of deleting the app itself and having the person you were messaging delete THEIR app too. Even if you press “Clear all chats,” traces of your conversations still remain and can easily be recovered. And even if you’re not one of the one billion monthly active users on the app and prefer texting with your iPhone, we have bad news for you.

One security researcher recently found this flaw and suggested that it’s exactly the same for iMessage. So basically, not to freak you out or anything, but any conversation you’ve ever had on an iPhone can never really be completely deleted. When you delete your messages, you just delete the surface level. The data is still stored somewhere — generally in an iCloud backup, but it can be anywhere you iMessage from (computer, iPad, desktop…).

Although to be fair, unless you’re a celeb or suspect in a case, it’s highly unlikely that anybody is trying to see into your deleted iMessages via the Cloud. But you know what they say: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.